All posts tagged NSA

It’s a safe bet the U.S. government isn’t taking advice from Edward Snowden these days, but the infamous leaker offered the Obama administration a warning as it mulls a further response to North Korea’s alleged hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment: don’t hack back.

In an interview with PBS released Thursday, Snowden offered thoughts on cyberwar that are newly relevant after high-profile cyberattacks at J.P. Morgan Chase, Sony and elsewhere. James Bamford conducted the June 30 interview in Moscow; it features some of the same material as Bamford’s August cover story in Wired.

“When it comes to cyber warfare, we have more to lose than any other nation on earth,” Snowden said, according to a transcript. “The technical sector is the backbone of the American economy, and if we start engaging in these kind of behaviors, in these kind of attacks, we’re setting a standard, we’re creating a new international norm of behavior that says this is what nations do.” Read More »

Called Tor, the system reroutes users’ Internet traffic through volunteer-run machines around the world before it reaches its destination. That makes it harder for Internet censors and police to see who is talking to whom online.

For instance, the author of this article worked from an office in San Francisco. But he appeared to be in Switzerland when he started writing, because he used Tor. After he refreshed the Tor connection, he then appeared to be connecting to the Internet from Ontario, with the traffic making several stops along the way. Read More »

A top British intelligence official said tools created by big U.S. technology firms are the “command-and-control networks of choice” for terrorists, and that they need to do more to allow investigations by security and law-enforcement agencies.

Terror groups are exploiting commonly found tools for encryption and anonymity found in today’s smartphones and apps, Robert Hannigan, head of the United Kingdom’s Government Communications Headquarters, wrote in the Financial Times. He singled out social media sites and messaging apps as tools used by extremists to create a network with global reach.Read More »

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The director of the National Security Agency said Monday that he understands why Silicon Valley companies have beefed up security to keep out government agencies, including his own.

The statement, during a speech by Adm. Michael Rogers at Stanford University, marked a small olive branch amid rising tension between technology companies and Washington following disclosures about the extent of electronic surveillance by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Adm. Rogers said technology companies took steps to enhance encryption in order to assure consumers that their personal data is safe from prying government eyes. In addition, some companies felt embarrassed after slides leaked by Snowden suggested the companies had cooperated with U.S. spies. Read More »

Prince, chief executive of CloudFlare, a San Francisco cybersecurity and network company, is allowing customers to encrypt connections to their sites for free. Prince, 39 years old, says the offer could extend encryption to roughly two million websites that use the free version of CloudFlare’s service.

Encryption would create hurdles for both fraudsters and governments, security experts said. Hackers would have a more difficult time spoofing legitimate websites. Intelligence agencies could be challenged to figure out what protesters are reading online. Read More »

As people grow more aware of government and criminal surveillance of their mobile devices and computers, a flurry of companies have recently launched products they say provide fully private communication. Read More »

To hear Edward Snowden tell it, the secret program that finally drove the former National Security Agency contractor to leak sensitive documents would have allowed the U.S. to retaliate automatically against foreign cyberattacks.

But MonsterMind, as Snowden says the project was called, would face one big hurdle: The White House and Pentagon are not believed to have decided when the U.S. can strike back in cyberspace.

So even if NSA figures out how to build the digital equivalent of a second-strike missile system, it’s unlikely to be able to use it, two former U.S. officials familiar with American cyber policy said. One of those former officials said it’s a safe bet NSA technologists are at least “thinking” about such a system. Read More »

Edward Snowden appears on the cover of the September issue of Wired, clutching an American flag. Writer James Bamford traveled to Russia to interview Mr. Snowden, in a piece called “The Most Wanted Man in the World.” Here are some highlights:

He’d volunteer for prison, if …: Mr. Snowden tells Wired he cares more about the U.S. than what happens to him, but says “we can’t allow the law to become a political weapon or agree to scare people away from standing up for their rights, no matter how good the deal.” Read More »